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Coelacanth
The Coelacanth is a very rare and ancient species of deep-sea fish that can be found in both and . In-Game Description "Thought to have existed for more than four hundred million years, this is a truly ancient fish. It has more fins than a normal fish, four pairs of which are uniquely shaped, muscular and covered in scales. Its flesh is supposed to be oily, watery and almost inedible." to Man The coelacanth is classed as one of the sarcopterygii, or fleshy-finned fish, which are thought to be ancestors to many animals including humans. These fish have fleshy fins which became arms and legs as they evolved into land animals. Location Endless Ocean Three coelacanths can be seen in the Unnamed Cave in the Abyss. However, they can only be seen at night, when the hydrothermal vents go inactive; in the daytime, their cave is blocked off by said vents spouting hot water. Surprisingly, the presence of said hot water does not seem to affect these fish. Endless Ocean 2 A large group of these fish are seen swimming around in the Pillars of Shadow, in the Zahhab Region's Cavern of the Gods. The legendary Living Fossil, also known as the Emperor, can be found amongst them, but only after the Cavern has been re-opened. Behavior Coelacanths swim about in a slow patrol of their area, reacting very little to external stimuli, including food and touch. That being said, the player can obtain their trivia by taking a picture of them using the underwater camera. Notes * Coelacanths, though not schooling fish, can be found clumped together in groups in both of the Endless Ocean games. * When the player focuses upon a coelacanth for the first time in the first Endless Ocean game, Katherine comes on over the radio and exclaims: "Holy crow! I think that's a coelacanth! It's a very rare fish that some people call a "living fossil." I never thought I'd see one here…" * Though the group of coelacanths in the Cavern of the Gods can be seen anytime, they are joined at night by the aggressive Okeanos' Guardian and his small troupe of goblin sharks. As such, it is recommended that players who need to add them to their Marine Encyclopedia do so during the daytime. Real-Life Information * In real life, there are actually two distinct species of coelacanth: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis). Based on the scientific names, the coelacanths in-game are West Indian Ocean coelacanths (L. chalumnae). * Though the coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for many years, its continued existence was brought into the public eye by a South African museum official named Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer. The genus name of the coelacanth, Latimeria, is in her honor. ** She discovered a recently-deceased coelacanth specimen when called in to inspect a unique find in fisherman Captain Hendrik Goosen's catch on December 22nd, 1938. ** Though she wanted to preserve the specimen when she first found it, there were no facilities at the museum she worked in to do so, so she took it into a morgue. The morgue, however, refused to help her, so she sent it to a taxidermist instead. * The fact that the coelacanth was discovered to be alive 66 million years after it was thought to have gone extinct, previously only seen in fossils, makes it perhaps the most famous example of something called a Lazarus taxon. A Lazarus taxon is a taxon that either disappears from the fossil record only to reappear much much later, or a taxon that was thought to have gone extinct but turns up alive. The coelacanth is an instance of the latter. * As a creature, the coelacanth was likely undiscovered for millions of years aside from fossil records because it lives in deeper parts of the sea and in small numbers spread largely, making it harder to fish up. It disappeared from fossil records because deep sea habitats are generally worse at preserving skeletons and fossilizing remains, which led paleontologists to believe it had gone extinct when, in reality, it had simply moved to a better-suited habitat that just didn't fossilize it. The term for animals such as this, who are believed to have gone extinct at some point but actually appeared in the fossil record or modern times much later, is lazarus taxa. Gallery Coelacanth.jpg Coelacanthe.jpg R4E_0025.jpg|The Living Fossil coelacanth 1.jpg Coelacanth 2.jpg Coelacanth 3.jpg P9860556.JPG P9830809.JPG DSC00128.JPG Category:Creatures Category:Cavern of the Gods Category:Prehistoric creatures Category:Creatures in Blue World Category:Endless Ocean: Blue World Category:Cavern of the Gods Creatures Category:The Abyss Category:The Abyss Creatures Category:Fish Category:Creatures in Endless Ocean Category:Endless Ocean Category:Night-only creatures Category:Creatures Found Day and Night Category:Adult-only Creatures Category:Large Marine Life